Account manager Joren’s first week at Expliciet is still firmly etched in our collective memory. Now, two years later, we have firmly embraced the—literally—greatest of Heartbreakers. Where do the ambitions of this Sure-fire Marketer lie?
Talk about making an entrance. Not even a full week on the job and Joren was already joining the annual city trip. The destination: Krakow, Poland. The land of pierogi, Robert Lewandowski, but unfortunately not the best servers. Joren found this out the hard way when a full bowl of hot beet soup was spilled all over his best outfit at a restaurant. Fortunately, no harm was done, although his shirt never quite recovered.
After a quick freshen-up at the hotel and a good night’s sleep, luckily all was forgiven and forgotten. Or at least forgotten. To the extent that he and his new colleague-slash-roommate Jelle had to chase after the bus for our excursion the next morning. A promising start to his Expliciet career, which we definitely wanted to share with you.
One of those new projects that crossed our path was the content partnership with real estate website Immoweb, which Joren is happy to manage. ‘An exciting project that personally stands out for me. Delivering a weekly blog in two languages naturally involves extra consultation, planning, and proofreading. Additionally, we made them a proposal to jump on the podcast trend. We effectively started this at the beginning of this year.’
With more than 7 years of marketing and account experience under his belt, Joren has a pretty good handle on how the industry works. ‘But there is still so much to discover. I sit down with ambitious and interesting business leaders almost every day. The stories I hear there enrich me not only professionally, but also personally.’
‘I think it’s important to share those experiences within the team afterwards. On the one hand with Jan and Maarten, who I find to be a very useful sounding board, and I hope to be the same for them. On the other hand, I think it’s important that I can share our experiences and successes with everyone involved. As an account manager, you might get those first pats on the back more quickly, but we all invest a lot of energy into a project.’
And does stress never strike during a more intense project? ‘It does, but healthy stress is allowed and even necessary, I think. As long as you keep giving the client the feeling that you are in control of the situation and that their trust is in the best hands.’
‘And if the stress needs an outlet, I just hop on my bike. For me, that’s the ideal way to literally ride away from everything: pushing myself, focusing only on pedaling, and completely clearing my head. Often, that’s exactly when the good ideas and insights surface. And I take those back to Expliciet the next day.’
‘Football has always been an important part of my life. I still play indoor football. Like many kids, I naturally wanted to become a professional footballer, but unfortunately, that was never in the cards. So, I’ll settle for being a sure-fire marketer; that should still work out (laughs).’
‘Besides football, cycling has also become a real passion in recent years. I schedule three to four rides every week anyway. Either I cycle on the trainer via Zwift, or I head out alone or with friends.’
‘Something I will never get enough of is discovering new places. From city trips in Europe—with the occasional local football match in between—to road trips along the west coast of France and backpacking in the Philippines. As soon as I arrive in a completely new place, I am totally in my element.’